I love teaching and learning with young children, this is where I share my ideas.

Welcome to Paula's Preschool and Kindergarten! My class blog is the place I share information about some of the fun learning activities we are doing at school. I hope to provide parents with insight into what we are doing, and why, and to share ideas with other early childhood educators. Please don't use the photos or text of this blog without permission, but please do use any ideas you find useful. Thank you for stopping by!

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

The Shepherd Who Cried Wolf

Do you remember reading Aesop's fables as a child? I do! There are some that almost everyone is familiar with, like The Tortoise and the Hare, and The Shepherd who cried Wolf.

Maybe it's because I remember reading the stories and thinking about
the morals, that I was really pleased when I recently found beautiful
clip art for fables. Whatever the reason, I bought it, and have started
retelling the stories with it.

I made a reproducible student booklet, and props for retelling the story. (Fables and retelling stories are included in the Common Core State Standards for 2nd grade, so that's the reading level I aimed for - although younger children can certainly listen and retell the story, even if they can't read this version.)

I even made a short video of me using the props to retell the story! I'd love for you to use this with your students - my kiddos loved watching short youtube videos like this, and I appreciated the opportunity to let another (virtual) teacher into my classroom to help me out for a few minutes.

If you're a regular reader, you know I think it's important to make learning fun, so I've also been making games to go along with the books and story retelling props. The game I made for this one requires a spinner, so I thought I'd show you two super easy ways to make a spinner in under a minute! The first one is pretty self explanatory,

- all you do is put a paperclip in the middle of your spinner background, and use a pencil to anchor it. A flick with your finger sends the paperclip arrow around. Talk about instant and easy!

Here's a more traditional way: Use a pushpin to make a tiny hole where you want your spinner to pivot (can you see it right in the center of the circle?), then put a brad through a paperclip. Put the brad through the hole - having that tiny hole will let you get the brad through your paper without wrinkling it up or pushing too hard and accidentally stabbing yourself in the finger with a brad. (Yup, I've done that a time or two!)

Open the brad on the back of the paper, and you'll have a spinner like this one:

Super simple, and super fun! How do you use fables with your students? Do you use learning games too? Let me know in the comments!

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About Me

I've been teaching early childhood since 1993, when I started teaching first grade in Arlington ISD. From 1999 to 2014 I ran a preschool from my home, and I added kindergarten in 2011. I closed my school when my family relocated to California, and now I create teaching products to share via TeachersPayTeachers. I cannot imagine my life without teaching, learning, and young children!